The Potential of Agro Climatic Zoning of Dry Land Wheat using GIS in Northern Khorasan Province

ABSTRACT: Due to the importance of climatic factors in agricultural crops and also the potentialsof Northern KhorasanProvince, the purpose of this study is agro climatic zoning of dry land wheat in the mentioned province. For this purpose, the long-term statistical data among 17 rain gauge stations, meteorological and synoptic stations, 5 evaporation stations as well as 6 synoptic stations out of this province were used and analyzed. The parameters we used in this study are: the probability of precipitation at a rate of 300 mm and more annually, autumnal precipitation, vernal rainfall especially in June, appropriate temperature for germination and temperature stresses during flowering and seed filling. Then, final map indicating climatic potentials for culturing dry land wheat in NorthernKhorasanProvince was provided by utilizing favorable climatic conditions and classifying the dataset we collected through the mentioned parameters.This map indicated that the most appropriate regions for culturing dry land wheat were located in the north and the weakest ones existed in the southwest and southeast. Also, this study demonstrates that it is possible to identify appropriate regions for culturing wheat by utilizing the effective layers in dry land wheat GIS environment.